CHERY is planning a wholesale makeover of its entire global and Australian line-up, headlined by two new plug-in hybrid powertrains along with re-engineered platforms and the promise of much-improved vehicle dynamics, as well as the possibility of Chery’s Fulwin A9L plug-in hybrid electric sedan and QQ3 small electric car being made available for Australia
The latter two vehicles were displayed as camouflaged test mules at Chery’s international reveal of the KP31 Ute Concept in Sydney – following heat and durability testing undertaken in the Australian outback – and while they’re both exclusively left-hand-drive for now, Chery’s Australian management is pushing hard for both cars to be produced in right-hand drive.
“We make other interesting cars as well,” said Lucas Harris, chief operating officer at Chery Australia, highlighting that the brand doesn’t just make SUVs.
“Hopefully if we make enough noise, eventually we’ll get some of that extra product here,” he said, referring to the Fulwin A9L and QQ3.
“No one is shouting louder than me to bring some extra segments to Australia.”
In terms of their niche potential, the QQ3 would become Chery’s first dedicated electric car (as opposed to the E5 variant of the Chery C5/Omoda 5) – competing against the BYD Dolphin, GWM Ora and MG 4.
Measuring 4195mm long, 1811mm wide and 1572mm tall, and riding on a 2700mm wheelbase, it’s a ‘wheel-at-each-corner car’ that just launched in China with a rear electric motor and rear-wheel drive, with power outputs spanning 58kW to 90kW (though with battery size unspecified) and range claims spanning 230-330km WLTP.
The handsome Fulwin A9L fastback sedan would sit at the opposing end of Chery’s line-up – a large ‘new energy’ plug-in hybrid flagship sedan, developed to meet global safety and design standards, that could potentially be branded as an Omoda in Australia (though it has been reported by Car News China that it will be exported as the Exeed ES7).
At 5018mm long, 1965mm wide and 1500mm tall, with a 3000mm wheelbase and a slippery 0.23Cd drag coefficient, the A9L is powered by a direct-injection turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine combined with a 33.7kWh square-blade LFP battery, and features sophisticated suspension hardware with magnetic adaptive damping.
The single-motor version produces 275kW/530Nm, while the dual-motor AWD version offers 470kW/854Nm for a 0-100km/h time of around 4.0 seconds. Claimed electric range is 213km WLTP while a 30-80 percent fast charge takes 14.5 minutes.
As for the next-generation ‘Chery Super Hybrid’ (CSH) powertrains destined for production from later this year, Chery revealed basic details of power and torque outputs and made several grand efficiency claims about the capabilities of these powertrains.
Speaking to Australian media at the unveiling of the KP31 Ute concept, Chery’s chief engineer for international programs Peter Matkin said there will be two new set-ups – the 160kW/275Nm ‘DHT160’ for SUVs between 1500 and 2000kg, and a more powerful 260kW/330Nm ‘DHT230’ for SUVs weighing over 2000kg.
They’ve been developed for global markets, from -30 degrees Celsius to over 50-degree ambient temperatures, and Chery claims “lower fuel consumption, stronger performance, and a smoother, more refined driving experience”, as well as class-leading thermal efficiency for the direct-injection petrol engine and a combined range goal of 1650km WLTP.
Given the core age of most SUVs in Chery’s current line-up – the Tiggo 4 (launched 2017), the Tiggo 7 (2019), and Tiggo 8 (2018) – expect new-generation versions of these models to start appearing later in 2026 and into 2027.
Each will feature significantly re-engineered T1X platforms (they share the same architecture underneath) and, for the first time, a global focus on suspension design and chassis tuning.
“All the architectures at the moment are actually being updated,” said Mr Makin.
“We’re updating that architecture to spawn much smaller cars (and) updating the architecture for the cars that we’re selling today.
“So, we will get new technology [and] be much more advanced.
“It’ll be a new version of the T1X (platform) – a new architecture, completely redeveloped,” he said, though Australia will see yet another facelift of the existing, nine-year-old Tiggo 4 later in 2026, in line with its debut in the UK and some European markets, before a re-engineered, new-generation version arrives here in 2027.
What will set these new-generation Cherys apart is that they will finally be designed for the immense challenges of international road surfaces, rather than China’s smooth, straight surfaces.
“What we’re trying to do now is make sure we’ve got the bandwidth so we can tune the car and still meet the requirements of markets like China and Middle East – where the roads are all straight – and then also satisfy markets like Australia and others where much more dynamic performance (is required),” Mr Makin told GoAuto.
“Trying to make sure we can fit anti-roll bars that are bigger than what we have today in China is critical. So, all the new architectures and the new cars, we’re making sure we cascade all these requirements – making sure you get the damper bandwidth much higher, to get the spring frequencies better.
“Originally, the business model at Chery was we always sold whatever was the specification in China. We sell internationally, and we only change for regulation. But now for Europe, for the UK, for Australia, New Zealand, we’re changing.
“We’ve got about 250, 260 requirements, which we now cascade into the each of the programs to make sure that we can meet the right capability, which includes all the dynamic performance.
“So, we’re modifying anti-roll bars, springs, dampers, bush ratings, retuning the steering. The brakes are completely different. Some of them will be upsized, so there’s a lot of dynamic requirements, particularly in Europe, where the speeds are much higher.”
The Chinese chassis engineers have been quite astonished by the varying road conditions and the driving pace of international markets – contrasting sharply with China’s new infrastructure, modern lighting and heavy speed restrictions.
“Before we launched Tiggo 7, we had some engineers come out and we did a loop from roads up the Old Pacific Highway across and then back down through Wiseman’s Ferry,” said Lucas Harris.
“And when we got back to the office, the guy said to me: ‘I counted 80-something different road surfaces and some ridiculous number of different lane-marking scenarios … I can’t believe it. It’s just beyond comprehension.’
“We did a drive through Inner Western Sydney [namely Marrickville], and same thing – he just couldn’t understand why the road wasn’t uniform. And every capital city in Australia you go to different.
“Lane markings, different road signs, it’s just mind-blowing(to the Chinese). And those roads through Wiseman’s Ferry with speed limits of 100km/h. It’s narrow, (with) close oncoming traffic, and I’m doing 100km/h and they’re just like hanging on for their life!” he said.
Mr Matkin recounted a similar experience he had with one of Chery’s domestic chassis engineers: “the head guy for vehicle dynamics, I go drive with him on the test track (and I said) ‘You need to go faster.’
“‘This is too slow, yeah?’ (he said). I mean, I’m not a dynamics guy but I can drive faster – they’re just not used to it. They just don’t understand why anybody would drive at that speed. You know, you enter the ramp up to the highway, and it’s 40km/h with a speed camera in China, whereas in this market it’s 100km/h, 110, otherwise you can’t join the highway. So they’re just not used to it.
“Everything in China is about safety. They’re very risk adverse with everything … they’re just not used to people driving this quick. We have this long, long wave test, which we normally do on a proving ground.
“But in some of the international markets, the infrastructure isn’t new. It’s 100 years’ old, so the roads need maintaining. And sometimes (countries) can’t afford to maintain (them), so they just put a sign up.
“There are bumps so you slow down, yeah? But some people don’t so, and they don’t get this. They don’t unless they experience it. We have to we bring them over, show them the different driving conditions,” added Mr Matkin.
Given this newfound focus on international chassis and suspension development, as well as dynamic tuning led by Chery’s R&D centre in Frankfurt, there’s a good chance the forthcoming generation of Chery SUVs could bury the less-than-stellar reputation for sub-standard steering, suspension control and overall calibration.
Yet even without the benefit of this re-engineering and new technologies, Chery sold over 2.8 million vehicles in 2025, which represented year-on-year growth of 15 per cent, and with a record 1.3 million vehicles exported.
Among that substantial tally, Chery’s ‘New Energy’ vehicle sales jumped 55 per cent year-on-year to more than 900,000 units globally.
